The park, Monday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

"Arrrr, ya scurvy dog! Ye may have the high ground now, but the Great Pirate Crocker will take ye down forthwith!"

"That's the worst pirate accent I ever heard!" Jean cried from the top of the jungle gym, giggling. "I'm the queen of the jungle gym! You'll never bring me down!"

"Ye think that, Jungle Queen! But I have a secret weapon!" He pulled a bag of jelly beans from his pocket. "Bribing you with candy!"

Jean sat down on the jungle gym, swinging her legs. "Wow. You're a terrible father."

"I mean, I'm not dead yet, so I'd say I'm doing pretty well."

[open!]

Comments

[seingeda]

Octavia had taken Vanessa out for a version of her usual patrol today, complete with a good chunk of time spent in the preserve. So, once they hit the park afterwards, Vanessa should theoretically not have had enough energy for immediately charging for the jungle gym.

But in practice, she immediately charged for the jungle gym, leaving Octavia to make her own way over at a more leisurely pace. (As much as Octavia's steady stride ever counted for that.)

"Ooh, I wanna climb too!"

[outof_trouble]

"I guess you could be my handmaiden," Jean said, giving her half-sister some major side-eye. "If you ask nicely."

"Ah, siblings," Duke said, looking over at Octavia and shaking his head. "Ha yun."

"NO FAIR SPEAKING THE SECRET LANGUAGE!" Jean bellowed. She was really feeling pretty left out by all the Trig.

[okteiviakom]

Vanessa had been halfway through saying "I don't want to be a handmaiden" when the bellowing happened. So. "IT'S NOT A SECRET LANGUAGE --" It totally was, though. They used it like one all the time, back home. "-- IT'S TRIG."

"Nessa, calm down," Octavia said, remarkably patient in her tone. Then, to Jean: "'Ha yun' means 'hello'. So, ha yun, Jean." She nodded, then tilted her head a little. "You wanna try saying it?"

[outof_trouble]

"No," Jean grumped.

"Jean," Duke said.

"You're, like, barely my dad."

Duke sighed. "And here I thought you weren't raised by wolves."

Jean stuck her tongue out at him. She'd liked it so much better when it was just her and Duke and not Duke's secret extra family.

[okteiviakom]

"Let her do what she wants," Octavia said, very mildly. "We'll just try to limit the Trig. Okay?"

Vanessa made a full series of offended faces at that.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah," Duke said with a sigh. "Guess it's not any easier going through a portal and finding your dead dad than it is having a kid show up and tell you you're dead."

"It's called a thinny," Jean said. "And I wish there was another one right now."

[outofherdepths]

"Hello, spawn of Octavia," Larceny said, giving the girl a wave. "Your mother is very fierce and strong, which will help your survival."

Larceny...still didn't get kids much. But she wasn't trying to mug any of them, so that was good, right?

And, look. It was hard to be a baby in the ocean. It usually meant 'dinner.'

[seingeda]

"I'm not a spawn!" Vanessa objected. "I'm Vanessa kom Floukru!"

Larceny may also have caught Octavia referring to Duke as 'Duke kom Floukru' in the past.

"But you're right about my mom."

[outofherdepths]

"I'm Larceny," she said. "I don't have other names. Except for Lucy but that is different."

[seingeda]

Vanessa's eyes went wide to an almost comical degree. Like she'd just seen a rock star or something. (You know, if she'd cared about rock stars.)

"You're Lucy?!"

[rebelseekskimchi]

"Oh god don't they know that royalty is like, the worst?" Evie complained, watching the other kids play as she tugged on Dante's hand.

He just laughed, ruffling her now bleach-blonde-and-red hair with a grin. "You wanna run over there and start a revolution?" he teased.

"Yeah, maybe," she said, pitching her voice hard on purpose. "QUEENS ARE DUMB!"

[outof_trouble]

"WHO DARES DEFY THE QUEEN?!" Jean demanded, balanced precariously on top of the jungle gym. "THE QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE WILL TAKE ALL CHALLENGERS!"

[rebelseekskimchi]

"I do!" Evie bellowed, pulling away from Dante to rush towards the jungle gym. "I'm Evie and I can kick your ass!"

"You know how your mom feels about language!" Dante bellowed after her.

[outof_trouble]

"Not if you can't catch me you won't!" Jean challenged.

She was going to regret that. Her trouble was dormant (lucky for Duke), so she was as plain-human as they came.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Evie," Dante called after her, "Play nice--!"

She was already bounding up the jungle gym at inhuman speeds.

(To be fair, she probably knew Dante didn't quite mean it anyway.)

[outofherdepths]

Larceny had been gone for a little over a week, taking the time to try to figure out where she was in relation to her pod. Now that the water was warming up, slowly but surely, she wanted to at least know where her family was.

Nowhere around here, of course. She knew that from the water. But now she knew that they were nowhere within a few days' swim, either.

She was heading back to the boat when she heard voices coming from the park and stopped to see--children. And Duke and Octavia but also many children.

[betterthanaplan]

"Lucy!" Duke greeted with a wave. "Hey, you're back. Have a good trip?"

He didn't have the details about where she'd gone, but he'd definitely noticed she wasn't haunting his boat for the last several days.

[outofherdepths]

"Yes," Larceny said with a nod. "I did not find what I was looking for though."

She tilted her head, looking at the children. "Was it spawning season while I was gone?"

Good thing she'd left when she did!

[betterthanaplan]

Just when he thought he had a handle on her.

". . . No. It takes a lot longer for people to have babies than that. And for them to get this big. Apparently the island sent a bunch of, like, future kids from different worlds at us."

[outofherdepths]

"But why?" she asked. "It is not good to take juveniles away from their spawning grounds. Unless there is danger?"

[magnusrushesin]

"Oh thank Pan, other kids to keep you entertained. I'm, like, real bad at not doing dangerous shit with kids around," Magnus said with a relieved sigh as Richard trailed on behind him with a thoroughly unimpressed look.

Richard the girl. Hey, fuck gender norms!

[outof_trouble]

"Adults around here are really bad at not cursing around kids," Jean observed.

She loved it.

[magnusrushesin]

"Hey, words only have the power we give 'em," Magnus replied. "Just don't be a dick about it!"

[outof_trouble]

"My mom says saying curses makes you a dick. Or a rude person. She doesn't say 'dick'."

[failedasavingroll]

"Maybe your mom's a dick," Richard chimed in, eyeing the playground with some serious consideration.